A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 Wilting of shrubs and select perennials

I returned home from a week vacation to find my dogwoods, butterfly bushes and phloxes wilting...also two vibernum bushes. I watered and this did not help...heard it had rained a lot that week already...can't seem to find the problem. No obvious pests on leaves. Anybody ever experience this...know what it might be? HELP!

Hi Larry,

Yes, i have seen my plants do the same thing... It happened when it first started getting hot and humid. Of course we have had a cool wet spring and then all of a sudden the heat kicked in. They are ok now. I think it was the sudden climate change from cold to hot.I think it took a little time for them to adjust to the sudden heat and humidity; now they are doing fine.
If u had a week of excessive rainfall and then a quick warm up... i suspect that is the culprit. They should get better and adjust as time passes. I wouldn't do anything to exasperate the situation, such as fertilizing or pruning. Just give them time.

If just one or 2 plants were experiencing this problem, than i would suspect some disease or something or root rot, but u said all your plants were doing it. Just hang in there and let us know if the situation improves this week.
I was curious... are your neighbor's plants experiencing the same problem?